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"Staring Blindly into the Future" is the eleventh episode of the thirteenth season and the one hundred ninety-seventh of the Murdoch Mysteries series. It is the 200th episode when the three stand-alone Christmas Specials are included in the count. It airs January 13, 2020.

Summary

Murdoch investigates the disappearances of Nikola Tesla and Marie Curie from the James Pendrick Symposium – a conference of 20th century innovators.

Character Revelations

Continuity

  • Inspector Brackenreid, an autograph hound, has prime ministers (ep.602) and presidents (ep.1114) – even Buffalo Bill's autograph, but he has yet to have a Nobel Laureate; He is determined to add Madame Curie's signature to his autograph book.
  • Pendrick's Bullet is on display at the symposium for the future.
  • Murdoch's remark "I suppose we'll just have to see where the wind blows us, George," echoes back to Julia's question to William, "Are you willing to see which way the wind takes us?" (ep.213) just before their first hot-air ballon flight.

Historical References

  • This episode takes place in Toronto 1907 – Edward VII (Albert Edward;1841-1910) is King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas.
  • Marie Curie (in 1903, 1911), Ernest Rutherford (in 1908), and Albert Einstein (in 1921) are recipients of the Nobel Prize. On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace – the Nobel Prizes.
  • The grandfather paradox is a potential logical problem that would arise if a person were to travel to a past time. The name comes from the idea that if a person travels to a time before their grandfather had children, and kills him, it would make their own birth impossible.
  • In 1906, soon after Albert Einstein announced his special theory of relativity, his former college teacher in mathematics, Hermann Minkowski, developed a new scheme for thinking about space and time that emphasized its geometric qualities; Space-Time is a mathematical model that joins space and time into a single idea called a Continuum – Space-time does not evolve, it simply exists.

Trivia

  • It was announced to celebrate the 200th episode a special Facebook Live Q&A event featuring the cast and crew on Monday January 13, 2020, at 6pmET would be live streamed prior to the first airing, but due to technical difficulties it was streamed after the episode aired.
  • On March 7, 2020,  the 200th episode of Murdoch Mysteries first aired in the U.S.
  • Eight Historical characters make their cameo appearances along with three new ones, making this the most historical character appearances in a single episode.
  • Nikola Tesla's invention for the future is an allusion to the smart phone.
  • Harry Houdini was originally portrayed by Joe Dinicol, the only guest cast member not reprising his role.
  • This second hot-air balloon flight of the series is underscored exactly as the first one (ep.213) with "Balloon Ride" by Robert Carli.
  • On the 200th, according to Peter Mitchell (on March 2020), "...I think 200 was also significantly long enough to celebrate the show in its totality. So that’s why we wanted to have guest stars that spanned all the way back to the first season. We wanted to have shout-outs hidden in the script that referenced the balloon ride from like eight-gazillion years ago, the bellman from the honeymoon on the heels of the 100th episode...we just wanted to celebrate kind of the zaniness that Paul Aitken and the rest of the writers bring to the show. Allow Murdoch to be surrounded by his peers, i.e. the smartest people in the world, which he is one."
  • Murdoch Mysteries has garnered 25 Gemini Award nominations, 19 Canadian Screen Award nominations and 12 Directors Guild of Canada nominations. Because of its impact domestically and Internationally, attracting millions of viewers in more than 100 countries, Murdoch Mysteries was named one of the 50 most influential television shows by the Swiss research company The Wit.[*]

Notable Quotes

Crabtree to Mudoch: "Automatons, sir, at least one in every household. And artificial meat, grown in great vats and you can take the gelatinous by-product and warm it into a household lubricant..."
Murdoch's speech: "The future is unknowable, but indicators abound as to what it might become. Wireless communication portends the instantaneous dissemination of knowledge from all parts of the world. Knowledge will end prejudice; demagogues will no longer flourish. Lies and misinformation will disappear. The matters and crises that face us all will be dealt with intelligently and logically. All of humanity will be able to embrace their better selves. At the end of the 20th century and beyond, truth and knowledge will prevail."


Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as Constable George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Daniel Maslany as Detective Llewellyn Watts
Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins
Peter Stebbings as James Pendrick
Kate Greenhouse as Sally Pendrick
Dmitry Chepovetsky as Nikola Tesla
John Tench as Alexander Graham Bell
Christine Horne as Svetlana Tsiolkovsky
David Storch as Thomas Edison
Lisa Norton as Emma Goldman
Todd Hofley as Henry Ford
Paul Beer as Bellhop
Philip Craig as Andrew Carnegie
Peter Mikhail as H.G. Wells

Guest Cast

Eric Charters as Albert Einstein
Eva Placzynska as Marie Curie
Andrew Hodwitz as Ernest Rutherford
Grisha Pasternak as Harry Houdini

Gallery


Murdoch Mysteries Season 13
Troublemakers Bad PenniesForever YoungProdigal Father
Murdoch and the Cursed Caves The Philately Fatality Toronto the BadThe Final CurtainThe Killing Dose
Parker in the RyeStaring Blindly into the FutureFox HuntKill Thy NeighbourRigid Silence
The Trial of Terrence MeyersIn the Company of WomenThings Left BehindThe Future is Unwritten


Season 1Season 2Season 3Season 4Season 5Season 6Season 7Season 8Season 9Season 10Season 11Season 12Season 13Season 14Season 15

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